In one of the rooms within a maroon-colored building, with plant-based decorations with them mostly being wood, is a woman sleeping. Her breathing calm and silent, with most of her body being tucked beneath the white blankets.

Time passes and the dawn’s light shone upon her slumbering face, causing it scrunch up as she moves to get the sun’s meddlesome rays away from her.

Eventually, the persistent rays makes her stop squirming, rubbing her eyes as she looks around the room. It is a neat room with white walls and floors, having a single wooden wardrobe, a few shelves containing some books, and a stand with a computer on it.

She takes a deep breath to invigorate herself, while circulating the shadow mana within her body to check for anything unusual. Her body seems to be fine.

She now only notices that there seems to be an unusually high amounts of bird chirps outside, and the light rain outside.

“Well that is a surprise” She lightly says, noting that the gentle light somehow managed to mimic a glaring sun’s heat, waking her up from her peaceful sleep. The experience at the jungle really changed her a bit huh.

When she was trapped within the forest, she was forced to maintain a certain level of vigilance while at the same time, still be able to get an ample amount of sleep. Due to her [Shadows’ Friend] talent, she is incredibly sensitive to change in heat and any movement near her surroundings.

But when she was sleeping in her room, she actively suppressed the heat sensitivity of [Shadows’ Friend], and only left a passive activation of her [Detection] combined with the shadow sense of the [Shadows’ Friend] talent.

Given, it might have been too lax for her to just maintain a minimal amount of vigilance. But most people would definitely be noticed by her when approaching, especially when they are as powerful as her.

Though, there are only 2 people in this settlement that can match her in terms of power. And that is the fire guy that acts as the leader of this stronghold’s new government, while the other is that sleazy bitch that currently controls the Santos family.

She starts getting ready for the day, using the soap and water access that cut a hole in her pocket. She then cooked the Ice Deer meat that she still has.

The deer meat sizzles as it cooks over a pan, tiny wisps of blue energy coming out occasionally. She plates it and starts eating it near the glass windows on the first floor, quietly enjoying the exquisite meat that is far superior to the meat available in the past markets.

Well, at least this meat is good she thoughts, still remembering how troublesome it was to kill the Ice Deer. She encountered it right after fighting a level 22 Black Bear, meaning she was already quite exhausted at that time.

She had to fuckin run for goddamn hours from ice spikes and ice gusts, her body in tatters as she kept running till she saw a chance to slit the goddamn thing’s throat. She reached level 25 after that struggle and gleefully enjoyed the sight of the deer being attack by other mana beasts as it struggled to stay alive.

She finished it when she gained a Tier-2 Class and the thing already used up all of its ice mana from driving predators away.

She takes another bite of the rich meat, humming at its tenderness and freshness despite it being already 5 days old. She thinks that maybe the deer’s mana affinity might have preserved the meat for a lot longer than normal. Chefs around the globe would be delighted at this.

Well, if they are still alive and worrying about how to continue their crafts, though she doubts that a new era of chefs will not rise with the system’s versatility.

She quickly finishes the steak and washes the used kitchen wares, still feeling cheated from how much water access costs within the stronghold. But at least it is far convenient and safer.

She goes out of the building and starts going towards where the city center should be.

Her shoes knock against the dilapidated state of the roads, while occasionally coming across just rubble, the sound of sand and stone grinding against her shoes’ heels ranging out immediately after.

She passes buildings in various states of decay. With some of the good ones being inhabited by people, busy tending to their new houses.

Most have a sullen and sour look, with some having a happy face that only an idiot would think to be genuine. Most people here have experienced their world collapsed, even those in the lowest platform of society wouldn’t be happy in this new world.

Well, there is an exception from the people that she has passed. Those are the faces that have genuine happiness in their face as drool flows from their mouth, and ones that looks like there is no soul within their eyes.

They are victims to the Silver Eye, one of the 5 leaders that fought for dominance over the areas near here. Only 2 of those 5 remained after the conflict, and are currently ruling this stronghold.

This part of the stronghold is part of the Fire faction that now controls the new government of the stronghold, led by the Fire Judge, a fitting title for that guy.

While a meager 20% is under the complete control of that poisonous bitch and her Santos Family, that only survived because she is a level higher than the fire guy and was allied to him in the conflict, or else with her antics, she would have long been burned.

The amount of activity around her eventually increased till it is now packed, but not so much as to cause people to be constantly avoiding each other, just enough to be considered lively.

After walking for a bit more, she arrives in front of the contribution building and passed through the guards. She waves at the clerk assigned here, the building’s visitor still being sparse and low, some just on standby or preparing for something.

“Good morning ma’am, would you like to access the contribution crystal?” The clerk said with a cheerful voice, with there being a slight tone of unwillingness hidden beneath the beaming greeting.

She replies with a yes, complimented with a polite smile. The clerk opens the door in the left-most side, and politely gestures for her to enter.

“The contribution crystal is in the 2nd floor, as always” She says as she passes her and into the lobby.

A few meters just in front of her is a flight of stairs upwards and also downwards. She walks towards it but before she could even set her foot on the first step upwards, someone escorted by 2 persons up on the stair spotted her.

“Oh. Hello there, Miss Amorous, fancy meeting you here.” A woman said dripping with sarcasm and a shit-eating grin on her face.

She just ignores the comment and calmly climbs up the stairs, while the 3s expressions remained the same as she eventually reached the second floor. She tries to ignore the 3 but before she could go pass them, the woman spoke again.

“Oh no, it is not nice to just ignore people you know, Miss Amorous. It is quite hurtful”

This little bitch!

Her body freezes as she tries to contain her anger. This woman is the 2nd ruler of this place, Miss Bitch or as she calls himself, Mistress Edna but most people call her the Poisonous Snake when not around her or her subordinates.

2 days ago, she had to endure and fight against a poison that caused her body to rapidly rot. It was already night when she started feeling the effects, and had to spend almost 6 hours actively fighting it with her shadow mana.

The only reason she is still alive to this day is because of the fruits she plucked when in the forest.

She plucked 2 small berries from a single magical bush, one sky-blue while the other is orange. The blue one emanated a minty scent while the orange one gave off a warm scent.

She used the orange one when the ice mana of the Ice Deer was far too strong to handle, so she only had the sky-blue berry left. In a moment’s desperation, she ate the fruit and was forced to endure the feeling of her entire body freezing from one that feels like thousands of needles is rapidly piercing my insides.

She didn’t manage to notice anything unusual before the time that the poison struck, and the only person she knows that could have done this is this woman. She noticed that she always had a weird demeanor in front of her, and was the only person that she was in conflict in.

When in front of other people, she always has a condescending smirk and tone. While with her, she always wears a sarcastic tone and an ugly fake face.

She calmed down before she could lash out at this woman. Turning to face her, she replies.

“I apologize then Miss Edna, I must have not seen you.” Accompanying it is a big smile, with slightly narrowed eyes.

“It is nothing, all for educating the juniors. Just don’t do it next time” Without even the slightest twitch, Mistress Edna smoothly replied. Her simple face is adorned with a gentle smile, but ruined by the maliciousness hidden within.

“I am grateful for this rare and wonderful guidance. Though, I do hope that you can excuse me, I still have plenty to do” She is having trouble keeping up this ridiculous conversation. She leaves without letting Mistress Edna reply.

One can notice that Mistress Edna’s face turn rigid as the words became stuck in her mouth, then quickly signaling for her 2 escorts to leave with her.

She continues to climb the stairs till she arrives on the second floor. It seems to be a large space that is used for large occasions, with white walls and floors. On exactly the other side of the stairs is another stairs that could be used to enter and leave it.

In the middle of the room is a crystal as large as a person’s head. A few men are currently transporting goods that have been taken out of the contribution crystal. The goods from what I can see are food, luxury goods, and others.

Most likely something Edna has ordered to be taken from the crystal, it is her own money but still, she want to diss her in some way. That fire guy is probably too busy to be indulging himself in luxuries.

She waits for them to finish what they are doing, and opens the contribution crystal after.

She is a bit overwhelmed by the large selection of goods, and amazed by the quality of some. But that is only for the default things for the contribution crystal.

But to her disappointment, she has far too little contribution points to buy the things that she wants. Though, that will change after she starts killing orcs again, and especially for the assault of the Orc Tribe.

<System Interface>

Quest: Orc Descent
Time Limit: 4:15:47:32
Description: Prevent the Orc Tribe from establishing a system-recognized settlement
Rewards: Dependent on the performance, 1 Random Elemental Pill

Quest: Prevent Greater Orc Birth
Time Limit: Unknown
Description: Stop the birth of a Greater Orc nearby
Rewards: 3 Tier-2 Level Pill

<System Interface>

With that, she should be moving soon.

There are currently 4 human settlements that are close enough to the Orc Tribe that it has been given this quest, farther human settlements have did not get this quest but their forces could gain it when near enough.

But those far enough have not shown much support despite these seemingly tempting rewards, giving her the impression that there is more to this than a threat.

Even the 2 settlements near the Bird Beast Flock has temporarily paused their war on the birds, something that doesn’t make any sense as from what I’ve heard, the “Avian Extermination” quest didn’t have much lower rewards.

Or they could have their own problems.

We were given a paper about the locations of each human settlement, their situation, and overall proximity to the Orc Tribe. So she already has a bit of data on the situation.

She searches for the names of the 2 fruit she consumed on the contribution crystal, and wasn’t surprised to see them.

Apparently, what she got was a Cold Water Berry and a Gentle Fire Berry. And they are both 1st Grade Mana Material, with short descriptions that only says about an unclear specific amount of energy and where they usually grow.

It is a bit weird how they have different origins, but they were found in the same bush by her. She tried searching the bush on the crystal, but there is none so she has to set it aside for now.

She buys a single mid-quality poison neutralizer pill in the shop, just in case she needs it.

=====

{Month 2, Week 1}

On a branch of a large tree is a green monkey chasing a grey cat. The monkey tries to slashes at the cat with its long black nails, its face filled with anger. And it became clear why.

The cat keeps dodging every attempt by the monkey, even the branches that the monkey violently throws at it. The strikes producing gusts of wind as they miss followed up by the cackle of torn wood.

Eventually, the monkey got pissed off enough to start using its mana. A strike is now far stronger, and with there being the occasional invisible blades of wind that dices the thick tree branches.

The cat is slowly being overwhelmed, until it was forced to a corner.

The monkey raises its hand once again to claw at the cat, but before it could even raise it enough far enough, a semi-liquid grey mist suddenly splashed into the monkey’s face.

The liquid slowly burns off the monkey’s face, its shrieks of pain and only pain loudly ranging out throughout the forest. It starts losing its stability, until finally slipping and falling from the tall trees.

But before the cat could even let out a single sigh of relief, and the monkey’s body hitting the ground, something interfered in their fight.

Red shards suddenly flew across the air and towards the cat. The cat managed to notice the sneak attack on time and barely dodged it, but before it could even regain composure, a red fireball hit it on its face.

It lit up in flames as the red fireball exploded on its face, its cries quickly following up the silence that the monkey’s shrieks left behind. The red fire slowly spread from its front and into the entirety of its body, turning it into a moving torch.

And with irony, fell the same way as the green monkey did.

On the forest floor lays a green monkey with a sizzling face covered with a grey substance, and a grey cat still burning with red flames.

5 people approached the 2 carcasses. Their entire body is ominously red, with only their clothes and weapons having the presence of colors besides red.

One of the red humanoids, with a fluffy tail and ears approached the burning cat corpse. The fire somehow not spreading to the surrounding greens, which should have been easy fuel at the rate it spread on the cat’s body.

It raised its hand over the cat, and the fire starts flowing into the person’s hand. Another red person puts their hand above the throat of the green monkey, where red shards is currently jutting out. The red shards start disintegrating into wisps of red energy and flowed into the red person’s hand.

They pile the 2 corpses together, and start trying to hunt down more beasts near the area of the corpse pile till they get 3 more corpses of good size. They each carry one corpse and starts carrying back the haul that they got.

The sun is quite beautiful isn’t?
Being a tree is quite silent and boring. Most of the job is being done by my blood servants, and they absurdly good at it. I tried observing them as they do their usual job, but I might have watched too many times that even I felt disturbed.

[Mind Stability] skill was gained while I was observing how they fight and trying to gain as much memories about movements and tactics. It is a skill that stabilizes my mind passively, which reduces the effects of emotions and psychological influences on my thoughts.

It is quite weird that a tree without a brain would have emotions and psychological traumas, but oh well, best not to question too much at this stage.

I usually use the stored memories for the development of the blood servants’ efficiency, but I have spent less time on them for the past 2 weeks, with my focus now on the observance of plants and how I could improve myself using them.

Right now, there is now a wooden wall composed of branch trees made by [Wood Melding]. It took me 3 days of absolute focus observing a hardened tree, made from the 2 trees merging together quarter in to their trunks.

But I unfortunately was not able to understand how the tree managed to harden its body so much.

This is important as I see the increase of the defense of my wood as crucial to any form of operation that I may conduct in the future.

It is different from me as the hardened tree almost matches my branch trees hardness with it having a far lower amount of mana supply and pool, which is how I have been improving my main body’s hardness.  

But it is closer to my wood growing stronger naturally, than me directly improving my main body.

I have been thinking of trying to go deeper into the hardened tree, and I had the idea to nurture the already small wisps of consciousness within it. And I failed miserably, trying to inject evil mana into it either makes the hardened tree’s wood to be assimilated or die, and that is not good.

So I have been messing around with my emotion and soul manipulation capabilities, and I managed to create a wisp of consciousness before I stagnated on how to develop it. I think that it might be because I lack power.

My mental control breaks before the required strength to create an artificial soul or mind, but it is not mana, it is a different power. Though processing power? Mental energy?

Either way, I got stuck in that part. I can only observe the hardened tree for any changes, especially with the little consciousness developing within it.

As for how well my branch trees expansion is doing. It is excellent so far, there are currently 356 branch trees in total, giving me almost total coverage over the entirety of the area I wanted to control, except for where the mountain range is.

The current limit for the amount of branch trees is 500, and I am planning to do the first evolution even if I don’t gain another option and just decide to go with what I have.

But I highly doubt it as I can feel something is getting accomplished as I get closer and closer to 500 branch trees, so I am anticipating it a bit.

I got 2 quests related to orcs about 6 days ago, picking up my interest. I wanted to see the usefulness of its rewards to myself, or my blood servants, though I am not sure if it is worth it.

The system was somehow kind enough to give me both the direction and how far it is, which is approximately 68 kilometers southwest. So it is at least 12 hours of constant travel for my blood servants, lower if they try to avoid the beasts in the area.

So I sent them just this morning, with there being still around 3 days and a half. Of course, I didn’t send all of my blood servants, I needed them for my growth.

So I sent 50 Blood humanoids, 50 blood beasts, my 4 bird messengers, led by Doggo and Guava. The entire group has relatively high levels, each one at least stronger than most beasts in the forest, while Guava is already level 25 with the Tier-2 class: Blood Warrior and Doggo is already level 27 with a Bloodhound race.

I gained the ability to be able to see my blood servants’ system screen when the skill got improved again, but only when they are willing. Any forceful attempts would be met with retaliation from the system itself.

It was not fun being stripped of my 10% mana pool for 1 hour, and that is only the warning.

I don’t want to oppose the system… for now.

Hopefully, this little expedition will go a lot better than last time I sent a large group of blood servants to do something. Most of my blood servants should be able to understand local languages as they have been using it to communicate when necessary, and Guava already has a personality.

I hope they bring some books for entertainment and experimental purposes. I should probably go back to work now.

[Author's note: Please do point out any mistakes that you may find.]